With such a cut in USA capacity, I decided to have a cursory look at Twitter, and it's actually quite bad how much leakage there is outside of our area. These tweets are in the past week.
Now, I know these numbers will not set the world alight, but, this was more a look that if these 1-3 people on Twitter are doing it, how many not on Twitter/not reporting it are doing it:
- 2 tweets of people flying MAN-LHR-DOH with BA/QR, despite there being 16 flights a week MAN-DOH on the exact same airline.
-3 people traveling MAN-LHR-PHL on BA/AA , departing about 0835, despite a MAN-PHL on AA, on the same aircraft, around the same time as the LHR-PHL flight.
-2 people flying MAN-AMS-DXB, apparently flying Emirates from AMS. Despite 21 weekly A388 from MAN
like I say, this is a brief look, and appreciate 2 of the 3 examples are eastbound, which is a strong market anyway, but, makes you think, it's a shame to see our own USA flights struggling when it seems many from this area are instead bolstering LHR/AMS and their long haul.
While we don't know the mitigating factors as to why these people chose to fly from LHR/AMS, I picked these 3 examples as they have the same airline, and in some cases, the same aircraft flying onwards from the hub. If it's price that's the issue, then one wonders why it's MAN that gets the chop and not the much cheaper alternatives further afield?
I suppose it boils down to frustration that MAN will go from one of the strongest summer offerings to the USA in its history, directly into possibly one of the weakest winters in its history, one extreme to the other. I know there is a lot going on in the world, but, when you consider the 2 extremes, something doesn't quite add up in my eyes, and I can't help think that while there is turbulence in the industry, I get the feeling MAN is also being sacrificed to protect flights elsewhere.......